Tag: beans

Conveying Coffee Beans With EXAIR’s Line Vacs

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

We often take for granted the simple process of brewing a fresh pot of hot coffee in the morning. But do you ever consider where this coffee came from and how it made its way into your kitchen? We’ve documented the life of the coffee bean previously here on the EXAIR Blog.

For manufacturers looking for a way to convey bulk coffee beans (both before and after roasting or grinding), EXAIR’s Line Vac is the simple and easy solution. In many cases, this operation is performed manually by an operator. In applications where operators must manually lift loads of bulk material, this opens them up to a variety of potential risks and hazards.

EXAIR's Threaded Line Vac Family

The EXAIR Line Vac allows you to use an ordinary supply of compressed air and standard hose, tube, or pipe to turn that compressed air into a powerful conveying system. Installation is quick and easy. With no moving parts to wear out or replace, the Line Vac is a maintenance-free product that’ll not only keep your operators safe but also dramatically increase productivity.

This was the exact case for a customer of our Colombian Distributor (home of some of the best coffee beans in the world). They were seeking a method of transferring their whole and ground products automatically so as to eliminate any potential safety concerns to their personnel. What turned out as simply a means of increasing safety, also provided them with an ability to transfer the product more quickly.

They were manually moving bulk sacks of coffee at a rate of approximately 80kg/hr. With the Model 141100-316 (1” NPT Threaded 316 SS) Line Vac, they were able to convey 150 kg/hr of ground coffee and 250 kg/hr of coffee beans at a height of over 30’ (10m). So, not only did they eliminate a potentially hazardous process, but they were able to move nearly 2x the volume of coffee in the same time period.

EXAIR’s Line Vacs are available from stock in aluminum, type 303 & 316 stainless steel, and a hardened alloy steel for use in abrasive applications. Each style is offered with either smooth connections for use with smooth-bore hose, or with NPT threads depending on your preferred connection style.

Available to ship same day from stock with orders in by 2:00 ET and backed by our unconditional 30-day guarantee, there’s no excuse not to try one out in your process! If you’d like to discuss a possible application for our Line Vacs, feel free to get in touch with us via phone, chat, or e-mail.

Tyler Daniel
EXAIR Corporation
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Coffee image courtesy of trophygeek via Flickr Creative Commons License

A Special Application Receives A Special Solution

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

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Outlets of a dual-point hose kit, stacked together

Earlier today I accessed the EXAIR Application Database and our blog to search for a similar Line Vac application to the one described to me over the phone.  It’s always nice to have something to reference when working with a customer.

But sometimes the application is just too one-off to be able to reference something done before.  I recently worked through just such an application in which an end user of our Argentinian distributor wanted to agitate beans travelling down a conveyor line with one, very specific condition – the airflow being directed at the beans HAD TO exit through a flat nozzle (ok, no problem there) made of plastic.  Hmm…

We have a variety of PEEK plastic Super Air Nozzles, all of which feature a conical airflow pattern.  Thinking on the possible solution, our distributor looked to our single and dual-point hose kits which accompany our Cold Guns and Spot Coolers.  They wondered whether we could feed the exhaust end of a Line Vac through the single or dual-point hose kit to provide the customer with airflow through a flat plastic exhaust.

The answer, I confessed, was that I didn’t know.  But, wanted to know and so did the end user.  So, I put together a threaded 3/8 Line Vac coupled with a dual-point hose kit, donned my PPE, and set out to see if this off-the-wall solution had any legs.

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A bit abnormal but it worked!

As it turns out, it worked!

The performance was nowhere near that of our engineered nozzles (ok, no surprise there), but the output was sufficient enough for the distributor to recommend a live test.

I’ll update on the status of this solution if we hear back on it, but above any beyond this particular application, the process involved goes to show how far we’ll go to help our customers find a solution.  And, if we can’t use anything off the shelf, we’re more than happy to explore special builds.

If you have a special application in need of a special solution, contact at EXAIR Application Engineer.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE